It’s been a little over a month since the Paris 2024 Paralympics ended. How does that expereience resonate with our TKFLASTANIs once real life has settled back in? Wheelchair basketball gold medalist Brian Bell and para shot put gold medalist Noelle Malkamaki return to tell us how the Games were for them and what’s next (or not) in their lives.
The Post-Games Blues are Real
After a Games can be really tough for Olympic and Paralympic athletes. The years of training focused on this one event, the media hype leading up to it, the hoopla and sudden interest from the public. Then the Games happen and they’re over. For those who get on the podium, there’s usually some post-Games celebrations and amazing opportunities, but fpr most, the attention eventually goes away. Then what?
We’ve talked with both Olympians and Paralympians about the very real depression that elite athletes feel once the Games are over, and because Paris 2024 was such an intense return to a “normal” Olympics with family, friends, and amazing fans, and a Paralympics that had packed stadiums (not something most Paralympians are used to) and lifted awareness of the movement, the return to normal life can be even harder.
Psychology Today writer Monica Vilhauer, Ph.D. recently wrote about the phenomenon of “Olympic Blues,” and how it’s not uncommon for elite athletes to experience an “existential crisis,” as an athlete’s main focus in life is suddenly gone, even if their performance at the Games went as hoped.
Our TKFLASTANIs Give You Insight on this Phenomenon
We’re touching base with several TKFLASTANIs who competed at Paris 2024 to see how they’re doing after the Games, now that they’ve had some time to process the experience. On this episode we’ve got Paralympic gold medalists Brian Bell and Noelle Malkamaki. Brian won his third gold medal in wheelchair basketball, and Noelle won her first–and got a new world record–in the F46 class shot put.
For Paralympians, the post-Games experience can be equally as confusing to sort through mentally, particularly when there’s not much regular attention given to para sports. You have this massive experience in Paris, then it’s back to life as usual. Brian’s got experience coming back from the Games, but he also has some life changes to sort through. Noelle’s story is a little different–everything in her life has changed, so now what’s next?
Still, both our guests have great stories from their time in Paris that will give you more insight as to what the athlete experience was like and remind you of just how great these Games were.
Follow Brian and Noelle on Insta!
More News from TKFLASTAN
We also have some news from other TKFLASTANIs, including:
- Sled hockey player Monica Quimby — learn more about her post-Hurricane Milton GoFundMe here.
- Wheelchair racer Daniel Romanchuk
- Listener Lorry
- Rugby sevens player Perry Baker
- Swimmer John Naber
- Rower Kristi Wagner
If you haven’t checked out Book Club Claire’s Paris travelogues, do so now! You might see Alison in them!
See us at Olympin!
Also, we will have a table at the Olympin show in Atlanta! The show takes place November 8-10 and is free to attend. Come by, say hello and check out all the cool Olympic memorabilia!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
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363-Paris 2024 Gold Medalists Brian Bell and Noelle Malkamaki
Theme Music
Jill: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the games, we are the show for you. Each week we share stories from athletes and people behind the scenes to help you have more fun watching the games. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co host, Alison Brown.
Alison, hello, how are you? I had forgotten you did that other
Alison: Paralympic intro for the show, so as it was playing, I thought to myself,
Jill: Oh, this is
Alison: lovely.
Jill: And I
Alison: fixed the sound at the end because we were at goalball. Exactly. So what’s fun for me is when I listen back to interviews we’ve done, especially if there’s a delay, you know, we do an interview and say, we don’t post it for a few weeks and I listen back and I think, Oh, that was a lovely interview.
You know. It’s always a pleasure. So hearing the sound bites again, I said, Oh, yes, I forgot Jill did that. That was, that was just so nice.
Jill: I’ve been , working on getting the dailies for YouTube done. And the hardest part is getting lost in the transcripts. And reading what we did and being like, Oh yeah, I remember that now.
And I remembered this and I had problems getting there and I had problems getting there.
Alison: Book club Claire has been posting her travel videos from her Paris Olympic time. And I have been watching it. And the funniest part to me was when I popped up in one of them, because we had a day where we spent a lot of time together where we had lunch and we went to the opening ceremony.
It was so strange because it, I don’t know if you’re having this experience with the, with going through the transcripts, it’s so familiar and so recent yet so far away. Yes. were in for two months.
Jill: Yes, been really fun to look back on it. It does seem so far away.
It doesn’t seem so far away when I glance over my desk at the piles of perished stuff still on my floor, still untouched. that’s Got to change soon because it’s a tripping hazard here, folks, but yeah, it’s been fun to relive them just as we go through stuff, it’s also been fun reliving them as we talk to Shukla Stani’s about their time in Paris, which we have today, it’s, and I will say this, it’s fun because we get to, the different aspects of Paris that we don’t see, especially from the athlete side.
So I really enjoy talking to everybody. And I hope, uh, you know, listeners let us know how, what you think of it as well. If you love reliving Paris like this, because it was such a fun games and everybody on the Facebook group was having so much fun chatting and watching and people have been watching Paris still on Peacock.
We’ve put it on. I know Listener David’s been putting it on and people have been looking for the official films from different games and just they’ve got the Olympic spirit again, which is kind of nice. And Paralympic spirit. That’s very true. Very, very true. Speaking of today. And today we are talking with two gold medalists from the Paris Paralympics.
Brian Bell won his third consecutive gold medal as a member of Team USA’s men’s wheelchair basketball team and Noelle Malcomaki won gold and got a world record in the women’s shot put at F46 class. Take a listen. We’ll have Brian up first and then we will have Noelle after that.
Brian Bell Interview
Alison: Brian Bell, thank you so much for coming back on with us.
Brian Bell: Yeah, definitely.
Alison: What did you do on your summer vacation?
Brian Bell: What is that? I don’t even know what a summer vacation is.
Alison: Well, you had, you personally and the team, obviously, congratulations. You had an amazing, amazing Paralympics. Thank you. I almost don’t even know where to start, but I’m going to start with, you kind of buried the lead on how amazing you are, right?
Oh my gosh. And we both got to see you play. I got to see the gold medal game, but I did want to point out. I do want to talk a little bit first about that semifinal against Canada because you, yeah, you ended up winning by just a little bit, uh, 80 to 43. Were you surprised at that game?
Brian Bell: We played them a lot, especially in our zone qualifiers.
We played them quite a bit, so we know each other quite well. I was kind of surprised that it was closer at the beginning, but not because we know each other really well. And then I would say that just how we’ve been playing and the people that we have on our team, that I knew eventually we should be able to kind of pull away.
We are a very defensive minded team, so we knew that if we could stop their top threats, that we’d be fine for the game.
Alison: I found a little statistic, and I want to confirm this with you. You scored the most points of any player in a single game in the Paralympics since 2012 in that semifinal? Did I? Well, you scored 31 points, and the fact that I read in one of the news articles that that’s the most.
Yeah, I know. He’s like, yeah, did I? Yeah, you kind of did, Brian.
Brian Bell: Well, that’s, that’s news to me. So
Alison: did this tournament feel different than the last two? I mean, other than the fans, but just the actual play and, and the competition,
Brian Bell: I would say, yes, it felt greatly different, especially after being in Tokyo and how, you know, secluded was no fans, just a little different atmosphere, compared to Rio.
And now it’s, uh. Go to Paris, have the fans back to have all that normal kind of, uh, craziness that you have with the games, with the fans, the, you know, the city are embracing you and all that, uh, was great. Um, I feel like me personally, I felt the best out of all the years and all the competitions overall, which is kind of funny to say, because I haven’t been playing professionally overseas for, for two years now.
So to say that, that I still feel, you know, one of the top scores, one of the top threats, um, in the world, I guess it’s just kind of a testament to like all the work I put in previous and being able to maintain that.
Alison: The final against Great Britain was so much fun to be at. The crowd was huge. I had read 12, 000 and it was, it was just a fun game.
But yeah. the USA team just seemed in control the entire time. Did it feel that way to you?
Brian Bell: It definitely did. I was like, we know they’re a really good team. They stack up to us really well because they’re very similar to us in terms of like how they construct their team. Um, that’s the reason why they’ve been so successful in Europe for so long.
Um, and it’s always a battle when we play against them. Like we can have our best game and it’ll still be a close game. Yeah. so we just know that it’s always going to be a battle, but I felt from like the beginning that we’ve all, we were in control from the beginning. , like even if we went down by a few points, like we didn’t let it rattle us, um, because we were down by a lot more points, just a year ago in worlds and we were able to come back.
So just to maintain, consistency throughout the whole game was kind of another testament to like how we’ve grown as a team, not experienced that we are. To kind of lean on things that we know best.
Jill: Right, because it seemed like the team really gelled. And, everything seemed to really come together at this whole tournament because what the games that I saw were also just amazing and not necessarily one person leading the charge.
It was the entire team doing things and the team leadership was phenomenal. And you could just see that on the court.
Brian Bell: No, I tell people all the time is that like, yes, you can have very top caliber players on a team, you know, the most, athletic players on a team, but if they don’t play like a team, you’re not going to be successful, we’re not going to win.
And that showed in previous teams in the past with Team USA, that didn’t do the job, they get the job done because they weren’t as close as a team off the court as they were on the court. So that type of stuff. Starting back from Rio is what we’ve kind of leaned on as our kind of DNA for Team USA wheelchair basketball.
It just being that collective unit on and off the team, uh, all the off the court and just being that high level chemistry and collecting this as a, as a unit.
Alison: Off the court. How was the Paris experience?
Brian Bell: Off the court? The Paris experience was awesome. It’s one of the, you know, my favorite cities to visit, uh, love going to Paris, being able to kind of see some of the history.
everything has to offer like to have a lot of like high end fashion around there shopping wise my wife was there so she loved it because she’s the first time she had a vacation away from all the kids so she was able to kind of walk around and like times that I got free we’re able to kind of walk around try some different restaurants go shopping here and there like we went shoe shopping and got a pair of shoes like just enjoying the city life of Paris Yeah, everything I had to offer.
It was, it was just amazing time.
Alison: Did you march in opening ceremonies?
Brian Bell: Yes.
Alison: Okay, so tell us about that experience because you had a very long, a very long trip before you got to the Place de la Concorde.
Brian Bell: Yes. Uh, very, very long. opening ceremonies is always a very long and daunting day. I would say we gathered around like five, five times.
15, maybe, like, just in a line, just to kind of move in a line. and we didn’t like, get on the bus to get to go towards, the opening ceremony area until I want to say, like, 2 o’clock. 630, almost seven. Um, and then of course, opening ceremony, then start to like, what, like 830, almost nine. so it was just, it’s a long process.
It’s a lot of like, like we always say like a hurry up and wait type of mentality for those big organized events. but it’s always fun. especially hanging out, dressed up with all the other athletes, just kind of, you know, taking pictures, taking it in. Um, just kind of hanging out, right before the game start, um, to kind of cut loose just a little bit, before it like actually get into, the grid of the games and all the, um, all the battles that’s coming, coming up.
But yeah, it was open. It was amazing. It was amazing having one of our, our guys be the, , flag bearer. So that was really cool. So we had the chance to be like, right up front as we came in. Um, just overall, just great experience. Great crowd. Great fans. Um, as we’re walking in, there’s fans lined up, um, the whole street.
It was just a pretty cool experience. I’m going
Alison: you a quick question. I forgot to ask you this. Okay, so we as spectators had this experience in Bercy Arena where the inside was freezing and the concourse was hot. So my question is, Were your, like the dressing rooms and the downstairs and the mix zone, how was your temperature in Bercy Arena?
Brian Bell: I would say it was, yeah, on the core and all the lower floors. It’s kind of weird. Yeah, it was more Like mild temperature, like more on the warmer side. so we didn’t wear a lot of long sleeves. Like we have, of course, like a long sleeve warmups, but we didn’t wear it very often because it got pretty, pretty warm very quickly, but yeah, that’s pretty fun that it was pretty chilly, like around the arena, especially with like, if you’re in the fans with other, you know, bodies that you were thinking to be a little bit warmer.
Uh, but yeah, it’s, it’s, yeah, it was pretty warm on the court. Didn’t have any issues with being too cold.
Jill: Did you know the French fans were going to act like they did?
Brian Bell: I had a very good sense that they would. They’re, uh, especially like some of the sports clubs that they, you know, really enjoy watching, they get really, really rowdy.
Especially if you see, like, most European teams, especially when they’re watching, like, their club football teams, like, how rowdy they get. It’s kind of the same thing. It’s like a very, national, you focus, like, One of them won a national focus team by all countries. So, like, when they have, a chance to represent their country, they’re going to do it to the fullest.
Um, you see it very evidently in, like, the, the World Cup for football. Like, anytime their teams are playing, they go, like, just crazy. So, I figure for, like, a games, like, of that caliber, like, it’s just going to be, just crazy. Um, and it kind of showed from the Olympic side before, um, I turns on like how crazy it can get.
And I knew that it will. So it was awesome playing France, in that crossover game in the quarters. Um, it was amazing atmosphere. I love playing those type of atmosphere. It reminds me of when I was playing over at Europe, um, just playing in our huge arena with a lot of fans.
Alison: Yeah, I loved during the final where they start chanting Alele Blue, but France wasn’t playing.
Brian Bell: Yeah, I know. Yeah.
Alison: It’s like they just needed, they just needed to cheer. They didn’t care. So
Brian Bell: yeah,
Alison: it was, it was great to be there and I’m glad I got to see you win. that was one of my highlights, I have to say.
Jill: And I have to say that I. First time seeing wheelchair basketball game, full games in person, how fun it was to watch and how much I gravitated towards wanting to go back because I did, excuse me, I did see a couple of games and usually like when we went to a sport once and we were done because there are so many sports that we have to try to get in, but watching basketball was so much fun that you just wanted to go back and watch it again and again.
And, and honestly, NBA. What’s wrong with, with the NBA not having a wheelchair basketball league on top of everything else?
Brian Bell: Yeah, that’s, that’s a great question. I, that’s kind of what I tell people all the time when they ask me about wheelchair basketball. cause they’ve never heard of it and it is getting better, but that’s just the opportunity for them to see it.
And then once you see it, you know, you just gravitate towards it. It’s a very high intense sport, very technical sport. just being able to kind of do everything with your arms, stop, push, shoot, all that, combination of, of techniques is, you know, it’s pretty impressive. that’s kind of one of the reason why I gravitated was just how the high difficulty level of the sport is and how technical it was.
granted, I love basketball in general, but it’s just a very unique sport to get into. and yeah, we’re, we’re trying to get back into, collaboration with the NBA. It’s, we’ve had it in the past. Um, it just didn’t work out with the collaboration with our NGB, but we are trying to get those ties back and hopefully sometime in the future, uh, we’ll have more teams affiliated with NBA teams and have a stronger league.
Alison: What did those conversations look like? I mean, not to divulge secrets, but just how does that conversation happen? And who’s, who are the stakeholders in that?
Brian Bell: I don’t know for say, , but we’ve had ties before in the past. Um, and of course we’ve had like new leadership, quite often. Um, so like once someone new comes in, you have to like, kind of rekindle.
that relationship or, redo the connection on that was there when someone new comes on. So it’s, it’s an ongoing thing. just recently started getting a little bit closer on our side because we’re separate from USA basketball. Um, so trying to do more stuff with USA basketball, with wheelchair basketball.
So there’s things like that. And cause NBA is really close to tie to. USA basketball. So that’s one of the avenues that we’re trying to like kind of bridge that gap a little bit.
Alison: So you’ve been home about three weeks. How has the reentry been and how has it been different than the past two times?
Brian Bell: Yeah, um, well, I’m working full time compared to like the last two times, so to come back and then to dive right into work, pretty immediately, uh, it was definitely, it was a struggle at first. I was like, do I really want to open my computer and actually log on to do work? Uh, not really, but I know I need to.
I’m kind of in the middle of, applying for positions here and there because I want to do something different. So like the stress of like coming back and like trying to figure that out is also a very daunting thing. but I know there’s things outside of basketball and I am not getting any younger, so I need to start, you know, making sure I have things in line to, To make sure the family and everything’s secure and have plans in place.
Alison: Have you thought about what’s next in terms of your basketball?
Brian Bell: not a hundred percent. No, like I vaguely thought about it, but more just leaning on, I’m gonna take like a year or two off. because I’ve never had a year off. So I want to at least take advantage of that, for at least the first year or two.
because I haven’t and then that way I can focus on work, family, uh, some of those things that kind of, got on the backburner a little bit because I was focusing more on basketball at the time. So, try to focus on those things and then once I’m in a better place with those things, maybe coming back for LA, especially when it’s being just right in my backyard.
Uh, why not? But definitely want to lean on, spending more time with family, spending more time on the job aspect and making moves in that area.
Alison: I was curious because you and Steve Sario have been so close, both as players and people, does, do you think his retirement is going to play into your decision a little bit?
Brian Bell: A little bit. I will say like, a lot of guys that I’ve played with since Rio, like, it definitely plays into it because we’re just so used to playing with each other. that, yeah, like, they all are here, all come back, it makes it so much easier, of course, because we know each other so well. but I knew that, you know, he was like leaning towards being, retired and I kind of knew that he already told us going in that it’s going to be his class.
Um. And I don’t personally want to leave the team if I’m not leaving in a worse situation than, you know, than where it was. So long as like the people coming up, like they’re getting coached well, um, I can give them feedback of like my experiences, then I don’t mind stepping, you know, down and giving the next generation.
their opportunity to shine. I don’t mind it at all. I just don’t want it to, you know, like all of us retiring or leaving and then, we go from winning, winning, winning, and then go down from like, you know, last place or something like that. I don’t want that to happen.
Alison: Just going to say you have three medals, but four kids.
Brian Bell: Five kids now.
Alison: Oh, well, there you go. So now you, I don’t know about this. Australia’s looking kind of interesting now for you, Brian.
Brian Bell: Yeah.
Alison: He’s like, no way. I’m the L. A. baby. Long ways away. Long ways away.
Brian Bell: Long ways away. Yeah.
Alison: What did your kids say when you came back? Besides, yay dad.
Brian Bell: Yeah, they’re just super excited, you know, being away.
Especially cause, mom’s normally not away. she’s normally still there. And she was gone with me. So, like to have both of us gone, it was tough. Cause they were hanging out with, my wife’s family for the most part. But yeah, they were just so excited. Like the kids were watching me some of the games on when they can, like I actually like in the classroom.
So I got a few pictures of them watching me, play. So that was pretty cool. And then when I got back, they were super, super excited that McMillan from the airport, they wanted to see the metal right away. But yeah, they love everything basketball. I grew up around it. like I oldest, from day one, just grew up around wheelchair basketball.
Um, and they all did, so they just love it. They’re just so used to it.
Jill: Have you heard about going to the White House yet?
Brian Bell: I have. I’m already about to start packing today to leave for that. So yeah.
Jill: Oh, is that like, is that like next week or?
Brian Bell: No, it’s, I leave tomorrow for it.
Jill: Oh,
Alison: really?
Brian Bell: Yeah.
Alison: Wow. They have been keeping this very secret from the press,
Oh, so this is, yeah. Yeah. They haven’t told us when this has happening, so this is breaking news, Brian. Thank you. . Yeah. Yeah.
Jill: Wow. Okay. Leave tomorrow
Brian Bell: morning.
Jill: Yep, leave. Okay. And tomorrow, I’m sorry, I still don’t know my days anymore. Tomorrow, Saturday? Yes. And so, wait, is the visit on Sunday or is it on like Monday?
Brian Bell: Uh, I think the official White House visit is Monday. And I think, uh, Sunday is like reception, I don’t know, some type of,
Jill: yeah,
Brian Bell: yeah, basically.
And I think, Yeah, Monday is the White House visit, and then I think they have like another, reception or something right after that in the White House.
Jill: Very cool. Have you been before?
Brian Bell: Yeah, I’ve been for Rio, but I couldn’t go for Tokyo because it was in May, I think. and I was in the middle of my, competition still in Germany when I lived there. So I couldn’t make it back.
Alison: Well, this will be exciting.
Brian Bell: Yes. Yes.
Alison: Understatement. Um, kind of like saying Brian’s kind of a good player is an understatement.
When I tell you, I was, so Jill saw the game, went to wheelchair basketball and she just kept saying to me, you have to get out there. You have to get out there and see Brian. And then I got out there for. Honestly, the best time to be there was for the medal game. So we are lucky to have seen you play in person.
I just, I really want to tell you that. I appreciate it.
Jill: Besides the medal. Do you have a favorite souvenir?
Brian Bell: Ooh, probably the shoes I bought there with my wife. Yeah, probably that.
Jill: And what kind are they?
Brian Bell: They’re Nikes, of course. I’ve been a sponsor. I grew up on Nikes, so, yeah.
Jill: Excellent. Anything else, Alison?
No, I’m good. Oh, no, but it’s so nice to be able to talk with you again and celebrate, because it really was so much fun. The Paralympics. Thank you. The Paralympics were so much fun to be at, and I just hope that we can help the momentum carry over until next year. Hopefully Milan Cortina, but LA is going to be great if people know to go and sell the place out.
Yes.
Brian Bell: Yes. No, it should be good. It’s pretty cool that it’s, you know, in a pretty cool area in terms of like celebrities and all that stuff. so hopefully they do a really good job of like promoting it and getting some high profile names there. hopefully some more high profile names come to like the Paralympic side, kind of like what they did for Olympic side.
So that’d be pretty cool, especially when it’s just right there. And. In that backyard.
Jill: It’s gonna be amazing.
Alison: Congratulations again Brian.
Noelle Malkamaki Interview
Alison: Thanks for coming back with us.
Brian Bell: Thank you.
Jill: Malkamaki, welcome back. How was your Paris?
Noelle Malkamaki: My Paris was great. I mean, I came home with the best souvenir I think I’ve ever found. So, gold medal with a piece of the Eiffel Tower, can’t really go wrong, but Paris was great. The second time around, like, since I’d been there since Last year at world championships.
I know that I actually do like the city. I think last year was like, yeah, I love Paris, but maybe it’s cause it’s just my first time in Europe, but no, Paris is awesome. I love that city. I would love to go back on not a business trip one day, but it was a great experience.
Jill: it’s interesting to talk about it as a business trip because it is for you because this is your job. When you’re going and you’re there for that long, what is your mentality , and also how do you not have, do you have that mentality on 24 7 or how are you taking breaks?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, it’s, I don’t think it’s 24 7.
It is a lot of the time. I mean, it’s great to be in Paris for like over two weeks, but when most of your day is practice. I have to go to make sure I’m eating the are kind of on in that wa time. But I have such great friends on the team that in those moments whe the dining hall for two h just doesn’t stop talking fun. And that does feel l Really leaning into the relationships that I have there helps it feel more like just a social hour than like constantly quote unquote working.
Alison: And Team USA was very close to the dining hall.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yes. Thank goodness. Yeah. There was one day that me and some of my friends walked around like the whole village and if you’re team USA and you didn’t want to see the whole village, you had no reason to like, we were so centrally located to literally everything.
So some of these other countries would have had to walk very far to get to the dining hall. And so then I’m starting to understand why people are like biking and scootering around. I’m thinking, oh, your, your dorm is like a mile from here. Like it’s, it’s a big village.
Jill: How was the food?
Noelle Malkamaki: The food was fine.
what I said when I first got there was that I’m not making it, I’m not paying for it and I’m not doing the dishes. So at the end of the day, how bad can it be? Right? Like I’m not the one that has to do all the prep and the cleanup, but. After, you know, many days of kind of eating the same thing, it’s not like the best food I’ve ever eaten.
It’s also understand the challenges of trying to provide for that many athletes and that many types of different kinds of diets and stuff. there was a little like bakery set up outside of the village dining hall. So it was next to this coffee shop. And every day they had Like, a couple different kinds of croissants and baguettes, and that was delicious every single time.
The bread was so good. So I was there every day and that was amazing.
Jill: we’ve heard from other athletes that the food was okay.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah. I think that’s, that’s the best way to put it. In the same way.
Yep.
Alison: Did you march in opening ceremonies?
Noelle Malkamaki: I did. Absolutely. I did. It was very fun. It was. Not a lot of people did.
I, I was kind of surprised that you, everyone gets ready, and everyone lines up and you take a team picture, right? But not everyone does the actual opening ceremonies walking and stuff, and like, it is a lot of walking, and I had the privilege of, my competition was still like, I think a week away at that point.
So it’s like, I don’t have to worry as much about, am I on my feet for five hours? Cause it is kind of a big undertaking time wise, but it was a really cool experience. It was very hot. And the little Ralph Lauren outfit was not, um, made for hot weather. I don’t think, but they, they did let us wear different shoes than we were supposed to wear because there was so much walking.
So that was nice. It was fun. I don’t regret like. The investment of steps at all, because it was just an experience that you could never have that again. You know, it was very cool.
Jill: How were the crowds on the Champs Elysees? Cause you missed a lot of the performance element of it too, that, that we got to see in the, non stadium stadium.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah. The, the crowds made the experience. you walked in like, I wonder how long that walk was like from the point where you actually are lined up. I think it was maybe. Like a quarter mile walk into the actual stadium and there were fans like lining that street and like waving and so excited if you would wave back and just very excited for Team USA.
I think that actually tends to be the experience that I’ve had when I’ve gone abroad for these meets is that Team USA gets a little bit more cheering than other teams might get, which is so exciting and so much fun. But then you walked into the stadium and the crowds in there were just. huge. There were so many people and they were so excited.
There was so much energy, uh, much more than I was expecting, honestly, not to sound pessimistic, but with the Paralympics and being a track and field athlete, I’m not used to crowds, honestly. and the people there were so excited. so that’s one of the memories from the games that I don’t think I’ll ever forget because there was so much energy and it was such a great way to kick things off.
Jill: Competition went well. We, and we have talked about it on the show and, and we had your mixtape on the show and my ugly crying with your mixtape. I still cry when I think about your performance. I don’t know why it really touches me, but it really does.
Alison: You win a gold medal, you get a world record. I mean,
Jill: it was so cool.
It was, I mean, you’re hitting goals and you’re hitting goals and it’s just, it’s really incredible. So how have you processed what you achieved at Paris? Cause it’s been a few weeks now.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, and it’s funny how the, the processing time is as long as it is. I wasn’t expecting that at all. and how like every day, the more I think about it and, you know, I’ll give an interview here and there and then I’ll come up with a new thing I hadn’t thought of really that way, right after it happened.
So day of it was just. Completely perfect. Like I had no notes for myself. I was like, this feels amazing. It’s kind of the first time i’ve ever gone into a meet and done What I knew I could do and what I kind of expected to do and that’s really the lingering feeling Which is a little anticlimactic is like i’m relieved that I did what I knew I could do.
the way that I mentally approached the games, I think especially like two months out was I’ve done all this work. There’s all these things I’m expecting to do. And at the end of the day, a gold medal in a new world record were just like things to check off a list. That is what I knew I could do.
That’s what I expected to be able to do. so just knowing that I did what I should have done. And that’s a very different feeling from going out and feeling like I did something super extraordinary, which I did, but from the inside perspective, it’s okay. You did what you were supposed to do and that’s unique that’s like a really weird thing to try to Wrap your head around I guess because you know, I I do interviews and people are so excited They’re like, this is this unreal thing.
You did amazing performance and it’s not that I don’t agree But it’s almost like yeah, that’s what I should have done, you know And I think that’s just the high standards we have for ourselves as athletes. It’s it’s hard to balance that out because that feels super weird. Like it’s weird to do the best thing that you can do in sports and then think, okay, check that off the list.
It’s, it’s a definitely a, a different perspective that I’m not even used to. And I’ve been in athletics for 10 years, you know,
Alison: well, you know, you know what you can throw and then to, to achieve what you’ve done in practice when it counts. Is that, it’s a very different process than, Oh, I’ve thrown further than I’ve ever thrown, ever.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, for sure. It’s, and that’s what it is. Like, you should practice harder. Then you need to, to compete. I think a lot of people will say that like, practice should be harder than a meet and, and I think that’s true. It’s like this moment of, you just execute, you execute like you’re supposed to. And I finally just executed like I was supposed to.
Jill: what is the feeling like going forward and setting new goals?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, that’s challenging. It’s. That’s the other thing is like I, I had my first games experience and it kind of went perfect. Like I, I won gold and broke the world record. Like that’s what more can I really ask for at that point?
Uh, so looking at another quad, it’s almost daunting of like, okay, you need to do that again. that’s the standard, you know? but because I, I am pretty far ahead of the other competitors in my field, it’s kind of like that motivator that I like to have. I wouldn’t want to be like resting on my laurels and thinking, okay, it’s good enough that I did it one time.
Let’s just go win the gold at this next one. Um, so the goal setting I guess kind of stays the same as it was when I was in college. I think I did a good job toward the end of college being able to just try to compete against myself. One of the perks of track and field is like, you can always throw a PR even if you don’t beat the other women in your competition, like you can beat yourself essentially.
Um, and so that’s always a factor with track and field. And I love that. So I think it’s just, taking the perspective of let’s see how far I can throw a shot put. And it seems really simple, but I think that’s, that’s the motivating factor is, is how far can someone throw a shot put with one hand? I want to see what’s possible with that.
and I’m kind of willing to take that on my shoulders and see what can happen for the next four years, because four years is a long time. It’s a lot of training. It’s a lot of time to. make changes, make perspective changes and just push what’s possible. So, uh, because of that, I’m definitely still enjoying my time off.
I’m not, I actually haven’t gotten the itch to go back yet, which is really weird and I expected to by now, but it’s like, okay, maybe I was a little more tired from a lot of track and field.
Alison: Paralympics and Paralympians have, have a slightly different burden, I think, than Olympians in that you also, So you mentioned that you want to expand your field and want to expand your movement and want to push you our competition.
Because like you were saying, you’re very far ahead from a lot of other women that are in your class. Where does that fit in in your brain in going forward?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, I think me and coach have talked a little bit about this where. I think you hope that by being somebody that pushes the entire field forward, everybody gets better because they have to.
so it would be my goal that, you know, I can throw whatever number in LA and that takes first place, but it takes a number to get third that would have won gold 10 years ago. You know what I mean? And to move the entire field of play up and to push what’s possible for everybody else. Coach talks about that a lot.
It’s harder for me to see as the athlete doing it, but he says that, when somebody is that good, it shows other people that like excuses that you might’ve thought were there, maybe aren’t, it’s more possible to throw farther than it might’ve seemed 10 years ago. And it kind of takes potentially one athlete to push what’s possible.
And then everybody else can see what works for them. That’s also the unique thing about the Paralympics is in general, Everybody trains so differently from one another that there are things that, you know, I haven’t thought that I could do, but then this athlete does it this way. So I can think, Oh, should I introduce this different kind of training into the way that I train?
Because we all have such different abilities. so it’s cool to see how creative training works into that. And yeah, I just, I love the opportunity to meet my competitors and just see other people doing things differently and training in this way versus this way. And yeah, we can all learn so much from each other.
And that’s really cool about bringing up the entire field. I guess.
Jill: What has been the response from people who watched you, or have you noticed a different response from people who are disabled going, I didn’t know I could do that, or I’d like to do what you do?
Noelle Malkamaki: Oh, that’s a good question. I’m not sure I’ve, I’ve talked to a whole lot of people who, um, I think my experience communicating with disabled people has been entirely the Paralympics, honestly.
so I’ve talked about before how like there weren’t that many disabled people in my town growing up and like none that were my peers, right? So if they were, they were older than me or a little bit younger than me. But, for peer to peer contact, like mine is kind of central with the Paralympics and that’s kind of a separate conversation, but even my mom and My grandma have friends and there are a couple people that I know that have had children with disabilities And I know that that has kind of made a big difference like someone that they tangentially know has been able to find success in this and I think Maybe parents worry about their children with disabilities more than the people with disabilities actually worry about themselves.
And I absolutely understand that. Like, I think my parents were probably the same way. And so to be able to sort of provide this, like, comfort that it’s gonna be fine, and like your child is gonna have a super full life and there’s so many opportunities for them, is like an unexpected side effect of doing all this that I didn’t anticipate when I got involved.
But it’s so cool. It’s like it to be able to bring comfort to a mother who’s concerned about how her son is going to be able to do something by just existing and like doing normal things to me. You know, the Paralympics is kind of separate, but besides that, I’ve also had just kind of a normal, normal lifestyle.
And I think that that in and of itself brings a lot of comfort to parents.
Jill: What is the feeling? Inside the Paralympic movement, because you also have to compete able bodied or you did compete able bodied for college. but like from Allison and I’s perspective, since we were there the whole time, the Olympics and the Paralympics have a really different feel. Do you feel that difference when you’re in with the Paralympic bubble versus when you’re in a competing able bodied bubble?
Noelle Malkamaki: Ooh, that’s a great question. I think that What’s tricky about comparing those experiences to me is that professional athletes see their job very differently than N. C. A. A. athletes see their sport, um, across the board and always, right? a similarity between those two groups, I think, is always going to be that.
While you do your sport for fun, it is also a means to an end at some point. any college athlete that won’t tell you this is probably lying to you, that at the end of the day, like tuition is on the line and your education is getting paid for. And that’s similarly true with professional athletes and that like.
A lot of them are doing this to pay their bills, I think it’s just heightened with professional athletes, honestly, it’s like, especially for Paralympians where the sponsorships are not as freely flowing and the money isn’t as freely flowing. It’s hard to make money as a Paralympian and it’s hard to make money as an Olympian too, for sure.
So there is this kind of drive to do well because sport just matters and you care about it and it’s something that’s fun for you. But there’s also this drive to even stand out among an already exclusive crowd so you can get the money and so that you can chase this dream full time instead of having to have a side hustle, which as we know, Most Paralympians and most Olympians do.
So I think there’s, it’s kind of cut throat in the way that you try to show out from a group that already is kind of extraordinary to try to do it full time, honestly. And that’s a, that’s a crazy thing to ask of athletes, but it is the reality.
Alison: have you gotten your bonus check yet from the USOPC?
Noelle Malkamaki: I just got the email that it was processing this week, so,
Alison: yay! I was wondering, I was wondering how long does that take to actually happen?
Noelle Malkamaki: They actually, I don’t know, I think I can say this. Yeah, this is probably public information. I don’t know if you guys know that France had a rule about, like, taxing prize money won in their country.
And so the USOPC was, like, trying to deal with all kinds of, like, how do we get these athletes their full check? And they figured it out, so, like, I get the full amount, but that was, I guess, some red tape stuff that France was trying to take a portion of all that prize money. Tea.
Alison: We had not heard that. I’m happy to drop that news.
Jill: There you go. Yeah. No. Wow.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah. Very interesting. I wouldn’t have expected that.
Jill: Did you go to closing ceremonies?
Noelle Malkamaki: I did not. I was in Italy when closing ceremonies were going on. I had a family trip right after the games.
Yeah.
Alison: Probably better, because then you would have gotten sick.
Noelle Malkamaki: Okay, so true, because the weather was, it was bad, right? They were in ponchos and stuff. Yeah, yikes.
Jill: Really
Noelle Malkamaki: bad. Classic.
Jill: So you went to Italy with family. how was that? It was good.
Noelle Malkamaki: That was also an interesting experience. my, this is my family’s first time abroad for most of them.
It was their first time abroad. So that is, you know, unique challenge, crazy for your first trip out of the country to be for the Paralympics, but I do what I can. so we had this trip planned to Rome and The perspective was, we’re not gonna have too much of a schedule because Noelle’s gonna be so tired, like, we’re just gonna take, take it day by day, go do stuff at our own leisure instead of having, planned times to get into the Vatican or XYZ.
You can’t do that in Rome, just as a heads up. That’s not possible in Rome. Like everything has to be booked so far in advance. We didn’t know this. I wasn’t, I didn’t have my hand in the pot of the travel planning. Like I normally would. Cause it’s like, I’ve got to go in gold, I guess. So it was a little bit of a mess.
I fear you should talk to my mom about that sometime, but it was regardless. Food was amazing. The food was absolutely amazing. And the wine was very cheap. I can’t complain much beyond that because that makes it all better, right? But, um, it’s just great to have new experiences with my family and like now we have this new inside joke that Oh, I remember that trip to Rome we took that was a mess.
So at least we always have that.
Alison: You graduated this year as well. You’ve had the Paralympics. this is a lot of things at once. So going forward, what does it look like?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, I don’t know. I wish I had a better like thought out answer, but honestly I am in this kind of like limbo period. I’ve talked to my husband a lot where I’m, I think that.
Everything that I’m experiencing with trying to figure out how I want to move forward with a career, what I want to use my degree for, how I want my next four years of training to look, and how immersed in social media I’m going to be with that, I feel like I’m having to wrap my head around everything about being done with the NCAA, everything about being done with college, and being post my first games kind of at the same time.
I did a really good job, like, pushing away those concerns right after I graduated, because it’s like, oh, but we’re on this track for the games, like, I don’t have to worry about anything because everything’s pointing to this. and so to be done with that and to be home, it’s kind of like, Oh, I gotta figure everything out now, and I don’t know what that’s gonna look like yet.
So, yeah, I feel like I’m doing a lot of thinking about every single option that I could think of. Choose moving forward and I’ll just kind of go from there. I guess. I’ve thought a little bit about getting us like a side hustle job when the new year comes. I think the perk of like winning gold is that I kind of made enough prize money throughout the year that I made like a quote unquote salary kind of, so I don’t have to like hustle to get a job now.
Also, my husband has a good job. Thank God. So. Potentially getting, um, maybe like a little side job in January. I guess I’ll use my degree for something like alongside training, but that’s where we’re at right now. It’s kind of weighing options. Like what do I want to do moving forward? It’s kind of the first time since I picked a college that I have this free choice of, of how I move forward.
And that’s exciting. And also someone just please tell me what to do kind of thing.
Alison: You know, both situations are overwhelming. Right. And you are very young, Noelle, and my daughter’s about your age. So I say this as a mom, it’s going to be fine. And you’re going to figure it out. And it’s okay if you don’t, if you don’t know what happens next for both situations, because we’ve seen, you know, we’ve talked to a lot of athletes and that post games.
Stress is no joke.
Noelle Malkamaki: Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. I, I call my mom all the time and I’m like, just tell me it’s going to be okay, please. no, it is no joke. It’s going to be okay.
Alison: You’re going to be fantastic. Are you kidding? Thank you. Thank you.
Jill: Is your apartment or house going to be as the cleanest it’s ever going to ever be because you’re working on figuring it out?
Noelle Malkamaki: Yes. Oh my gosh. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I am like a stress cleaner. If I’m stressed about something, I’m gonna, like, clean the bathroom, I’m gonna organize the cabinets, and I guess there are worse stress responses, so I’ll take it, but no, it is nice to have time to just cook and clean. I’m like, ooh, I feel like a real person.
Jill: Side hustle, come over to my house and clean. I’m starting a cleaning service, yeah, let me
Alison: know. There you go.
The post that you did in response to Ryan Krauser with the two hands. So we just, we just mentioned it to each other and we both will start laughing. It was so fantastic.
So I love it when
Noelle Malkamaki: we post the episode. Thank you. That was like my, uh, my 10 minutes of fame. I think I really, I really hit the nail on the head with that one. So you can also thank my mom for that. Potentially. I posted it on. I think I posted it on Instagram first and then she was like, you got to put it on TikTok too.
And I was like, okay, fine. So my mom is my social media manager at this point. Um, hit her up for any requests.
Jill: Excellent. Oh, no. Well, thank you so much for taking some time and talking with us. we’re just thrilled for you and so excited. And now like, yeah, we’re, we’re thinking about you during this transition time. Cause it’s tough. It’s tough to figure it out, but, but we’re always here.
Noelle Malkamaki: Thank you. I really appreciate that.
And I love chatting with you ladies. Any, any time seriously hit me up and we can, we can yap on the podcast.
Jill: Sounds good. We will. Well, and we will hit you up. Cause it’d be, it’s always interesting to us to see, like, everybody thinks, oh, it’s once every four years and you guys have to live it every day.
And so touching base and getting those touch points with people is really interesting for us. And we think our listeners like it too. Awesome. Sounds
great. Thank you so much Brian and Noelle. You can follow both of them on Insta and we will have links to their accounts in the show notes.
Meet us at the 2024 Olympin Show!
Jill: You know what else we’ll have a link to in the show show notes. Olympian. That’s right. We will be at the Olympian collector show in, uh, no, the beginning of November. This is a free memorabilia show where you can buy and trade pins and other cool Olympic and Paralympic souvenirs. I know we’ve posted before in the group, some of the stuff that we saw at the last show that we went to in, uh, uh, Marina Del Rey.
Yes, it was California and you never know what you’re going to find. So if you’re into Olympic stuff and, uh, want to trade some of your pins. Come on out. It is Friday through Sunday, November 8th through 10th at the Marriott Atlanta Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia. On Friday and Saturday, the hours will be 10 a.
- to 5 p. m. and Sunday is 10 to 3. We will have a table there, so please stop by and say hello.
TKFLASTAN Update
Alison: Welcome to Shookflushton.
Jill: Now is the time of the show where we check in with our team, keep the flame alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up our citizenship of our very own country, Shukflistan.
Alison: Monica Quimby, we mentioned last week that she had been evacuated for Hurricane Milton.
She and her family did suffer a lot of damage to their home and they have set up a GoFundMe page to help deal with that. So we will have a link to that in the show notes. And our best wishes to Monica and everyone down in Florida. This was, this was amazing. This is no joke.
Jill: No, there’s a lot of destruction.
And I know on her house in particular, like tree fell over onto the house, but also with some electrical wires. So they couldn’t, I don’t know if they’re back in their house yet, but they really had to stay away for a long time because of the danger that those wires presented. So good luck to Monica and her family.
Daniel Romanchuk finished second in the men’s wheelchair division of the Chicago Marathon, four seconds behind winner Marcelle Hughe.
Alison: See, now I’m totally torn whenever there’s these wheelchair marathons because Daniel was so lovely when we, we got to talk to him, but Marcelle Hughe is my silver bullet to my heart.
Jill: Also exciting, listener Lorry ran and finished her sixth. Chicago Marathon. So good on you, listener. Lorry
Alison: Perry Baker has officially retired from USA Men’s Rugby sevens, ending a 10 year career that included three Olympics, two Rugby World Cup sevens and two Olympics. World Rugby Player of the Year awards.
He will be stepping into an assistant coaching role with Men’s Sevens through the end of the year.
Jill: John Naber has stepped down from the USOPC Board of Directors.
Alison: And Kristi Wagner will be rowing at the head of the Charles Regatta this weekend, uh, Saturday at 11. 10 a. m. in the Alumni 8s. Olympians and Paralympians at the Regatta will be wearing a special lanyard so you can see who they are.
They will be easily identified. And apparently a few hundred plan to be there. The head of the Charles is so much fun. We both lived in Boston. So there was always that atmosphere around this weekend and it was like, Oh, don’t drive over there. But you did want to be there for the fun part of it. So if you’re up that way, definitely squeeze a little time, take the tea and get out and take a look.
Jill: And one final thing, thank you to the listener who shopped through our bookshop. org site and helped us earn a little commission. Every little bit helps us bootstrap this operation a little bit more as we go. Close out the books from Paris 2024 and immediately have to get the books open for Milan Cortina 2026 and maintain the regular operations of the show.
So we do appreciate it when people shop through that site, if you’re buying books or in the market for books, please consider buying through our store to help us earn a commission on everything earned, not just the. fabulous titles on our featured lists. That is bookshop. org slash shop slash flame alive pod.
And those links will be in the show notes as well. Um, as we head out, we still, you know, we’re still loving stories from Paris 2024. So please let us know your favorites from that games and what you’d like to see us cover before Milan Cortina 2026.
Get in Touch!
Alison: We love hearing from you. You can chat with us and other listeners on our Facebook group.
Keep the flame alive podcasts, email us at flamealivepod at gmail. com and the voicemail and text line is always open at two zero eight. 3 5 2 6 3 4 8. That’s 2 0 8. Flame it.
Jill: Next week we will be back with more stories and news from the Paralympics and Olympics. Thank you so much for listening and until next time, keep the flame alive.